Govt to provide financial assistance to youth through PM Youth Program: Usman Dar

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs, Muhammad Usman Dar on Tuesday said that under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of the Prime Minister, the government would provide financial assistance to youth through grants, interest free loans, and micro loans without collateral for SMEs and cottage industry.

He said the government would provide opportunity to the youth in various sectors including manufacturing, textile, sports, cutlery, information technology

Usman Dar called on Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Textile Industry and Investment, Razak Dawood and discussed to deliberate on formulation of viable mechanism for the successful implementation of initiatives envisioned in YES, said a press release issued by Ministry of Commerce here.

He said the scheme aims to address financial issues, which was a key factor that determines new enterprise creation and growth in order to create employment opportunities for the youth in the aforesaid emerging sectors of the economy.

Usman said that small enterprises stimulate economic growth by providing employment opportunities, fostering innovation and reducing income inequalities.

He said that lack of adequate financing facilities from formal sources was one of the key challenges faced by the small enterprises and youth entrepreneurs.

The Government was cognizant of this situation and was fully committed to enable youth to avail affordable financing from banks for establishing new business or strengthening their existing business, he said.

Special Assistant to PM said that in order to provide self-employment opportunities to unemployed youth, the Government was launching Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan SME Lending Program across the country.

The adviser to PM on Commerce assured that Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) would support Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme through an integrated mechanism of assistance that would include awareness creation, capacity building, training and networking of entrepreneurship.